420 - 2009

My introduction to marijuana came on a drive from Nantasket Beach in the summer of 1969. Frank E Smith (not my brother), Thommie Jordan, and John Gilmour were friends from the Surf, a dance club on the beach. We had just seen the Rockin' Ramrods, the South Shore's #1. They wanted to smoke marijuana on the way home. I was the hold-out.

"I don't want to get a contact high." My drug of choice was beer, wine, and any other form of alcohol. I turned the radio in my VW Beetle to WMEX. They played hippie music this late at night.

"Smoke it." John lit up a reefer. He attended Catholic Memorial. It was my school's archrival. "You'll feel good."

"Smoke it." Thommie Jordan played hockey for Archbishop Williams. He had long hair. His sister was cute. "It won't hurt you."

"Smoke it." Frank E Smith was heading into the Marines. He wanted to see the world. "Girls like it, especially that hippie girl from Weymouth you like. Susan Finn."

"She does?" I had spent the entire night trying to get her out to the beach.

"Yes, she does." A match flared before John's face. He inhaled off the joint and then passed it to the front. I took it from him and inhaled, ending my days as a straight person. Two minutes later we were stopped at a green light in Hingham. Time had reversed direction. I was ruined for society and glad of it.

FTW

And especially on 4/20, National Smoke Day.

420 wasn't the original choice for this holiday, however 4:20 was the mythical time that these pothead from San Rafael High School in California would meet at Louis Pasteur Statue to get high.

Hence 420.

Not much else to say other than I'm going out to break the law.

ps I haven't smoke in over three years. Health reasons, but I condoned breaking this federal law.

Defund the DEA.

It's time to free the weed.

If you got it, smoke it.

Good and Bad 4/20

4/20 is considered a good day by millions of free marijuana smokers around the world, but not every April 20th has been perfect. On the morning of 4/20/2022 I phoned Dakota Pollock for his birthday and he explained, "Hitler was born on April 20th, the Columbine High School Massacre happened on this day, and the DEEPWATER HORIZON exploded in the Gulf of Mexico."

"Some good things must had happened on that date," I countered, hoping for the best.

"Name one."

"I woke up today and it's your birthday."

I sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY as I had since I met Dakota over ten years ago.

"That's one thing I love about my birthday. Your singing that song."

"Count of my singing it next year."

"And for years to come."

"Word that."

I hung up and returned for another bout with sleep.

A good thing any day of the year.

ps Dakota is the one standing.

420 - 2010

2010

California's Secretary of State has certified the voting ballot for the legalization of marijuana. 420. The forces of ganga are asking reefer smokers around the nation to support this measure with a donation of $4.20 in recognition of the legendary Point Reyes high school students who would met at the statue of Louis Pasteur to smoke reefer. Millions of potheads gather on 4/20 every year to promote a change in the United States' failed prohibition against the weed.

While other states have decriminalized possession or sanctioned medical use, California's initiative would permit growth, possession, sale, and ingestion of marijuana for casual smokers. Progressive legislators are seeking to free up billions of tax dollars wasted on the war against marijuana as well as the potential state revenues gained from the sales tax on marijuana. The police are divided on the issue, although a majority of Californians are in favor of the measure.

If the law passes through the voting process, California would be in conflict with the federal laws against the herb and also New York City's anti-marijuana jihad led by the ayatollah of uncool, Mayor Bloomberg. Arrests for weed in the 90s hovered around 1000. In 2008 the NYPD rounded up over 40,000 people per annum, mostly young males of color. Andy, the ex-cop at the diamond exchange, said of his years on the force, "You can tell when someone's high on pot. The stupid smile. An easy arrest and most of the time non-violent too."

"So you don't smoke weed?" I knew better.

"Don't ask, don't tell." Andy was a straight Vietnam vet, but was smart enough to recognize when to follow the Pentagon's policy on homosexuals in the military.

California would be wise if it copied the Netherlands' lead on marijuana.

1. To prevent drug use and to treat and rehabilitate drug users.

2. To reduce harm to users.

3. To diminish public nuisance by drug users (the disturbance of public order and safety in the neighborhood).

4. To combat the production and trafficking of drugs.

(from Wikpedia)

In other words no naked hot tub parties after midnight playing the Grateful Dead at 10 on the volume knob unless you invite the neighbors too.

420

Send in your contribution of $4.20 to NORML

It's time to end the madness.

END THE WAR ON DRUGS

DEFUND THE DEA.

FREE THE POWS

One more thing.

Fuck Bloomberg.

THE INHALE OF WEED by Peter Nolan Smith

Marijuana was demonized throughout my youth. The Boston police treated reefer smokers as harshly as junkies. John Sinclair, the MC5's radical spokesperson, was sentenced to ten years of prison for the crime of ‘giving’ an undercover agent two joints. The severity of his punishment did not deter the millions of marijuana smokers of the 60s from burnign the weed and the herb found more and more disciples after the Summer of Love.

Cute girls hit the bong. John Lennon was arrested for possession. Football players got high.

I remained straight.

Drugs were for someone else.

I liked beer.

My friends were converts. They smoked in my VW Beetle. In the summer of 1969 John Gilmour lit up a joint of Columbian Red on the way back from Nantasket Beach. I opened the sunroof to avoid a contact high.

"You're missing out on a good thing." He sat in the front seat.

"It's against the law."

"So is speeding, but you're ten miles over the speed limit."

"That's different." I slowed down, because the town cops on Route 3A loved busting teenagers.

"Your loss." John passed the joint to Frank Ames. He had just returned from Vietnam. Only John had long hair.

NO TIME LEFT FOR YOU by the Guess Who was playing on WMEX.

They were having a good time. I felt left out. We pulled up to a red light in Hingham and I said, “Let me have some.”

“No.”

The three of them argued briefly that one of us had to be straight.

“Why?”

They didn’t have a good answer and I grabbed the joint from John.

I had smoked a cigarette in 1964 and coughed like I was losing a lung then.

I feared the same result from the joint, but inhaled deeply on the joint.

I was a long-distance runner. I didn’t exhale for 30 seconds. The plume of smoke from my mouth clouded up the VW.

"I don't feel anything."

“That’s normal,” John said in a dream.

"Wait. This pot creeps up on you," Frank warned from the back seat.

The light turned green.

"That color is so beautiful."

"Yeah." John agreed with me.

"Someone got high." Frank closed his eyes.

The radio played The Misunderstood' CHILDREN OF THE SUN. We didn’t move for the entire song.

A horn broke the trance. We were holding up traffic. I shifted into first and we drove to John’s house in Wollaston to smoke another joint.

I was no longer straight.

“I’m hungry,” Frank announced after listening to FREAK OUT. He had another week of furlough before returning to Vietnam. “What about fried clams?”

“Tony’s or the Clambox?” I could go either way.

“The girls in bikinis hang out at the Clambox.” Frank rolled another joint.

“Tony’s has better clams.” John was a picky eater.

“Let’s eat at both,” I suggested, since they were only a short distance apart.

It was a good choice.

And so was turning on to marijuana.

Ohio Getaway

Pot costs about $800 a pound in California and several years ago two boys from Duchess County New York decided to drive cross-country, score ten pounds, and drive back with the weed to sell OZs at $80. Neither Mike not Earl could remember a big bust in their hometown for ages. The cops were old and over-worked. Everyone wanted cheap weed and they could use the money.

The two twenty year-olds cut their hair, dressed in their Sunday suits, packed up their BMW SUV with empty bags, and headed west from the Poughkeepsie at dawn. The strain of the long haul was eased by good tunes and a few joints for the road. By the time they crossed into Ohio, the duo were high and the stash was down to a single joint. None would have been better, since the 1st Commandment of an outlaw was to only break one law at a time.

West of Cleveland a state trooper stopped them on I-90. He had a dog with him. It wasn't a poodle, but a Alsatian drug sniffer, which had probably been raised on hash cookies and was jonesing for a bag of weed.

"It's factory regulation." The trooper was almost as young as them. His hair was cut to the bone. HIs body fat zero. A gun was on his hip. He was everything they were not.

"What's the problem, officer?"

"Those windows are too dark for this state."

The trooper's dog barking meant one thing and he ordered the two boys out of their car. The dog found the last joint in three seconds. The $8000 was next to it. Things looked bad, until the trooper offered them a deal.

"Boys, you're probably heading to California to get some weed. $8000 worth. Come back to New York and make a little fortune. You tell me the truth and I'll let you go."

The two had never trusted a Duchess County cop, but decided to place their fate in this mirror image of law and order.

They admitted their guilt.

"Good, now I want you to turn around and drive back to New York. Don't come through this way again. You're getting off easy, just remember that. Cops farther west would have you in cuffs and you'd lose the car and the $8000."

"Yes, officer."

Mike and Earl were grateful for this gift. They threw out the joint and turned around on the next interchange. Both tried to figure out why they had gotten off so easy.

"Maybe Ohio is soft of weed." Mike had a cousin in Cleveland. He said that the police were only after crystal meth.

"Naw, it's because the state is broke and they don't have the money to try small-timers like us."

Their debate was cut short by the whoop of a siren. Another state trooper pulled them over for tinted windows. He had a dog. The dog found the marijuana scented cash in 5 seconds. Mike and Earl explained the story to the state trooper, who called his fellow officer on a cellphone.

"Just keep heading east."

"Yes, officer."

None of the headers in Duchess County believed Mike and Earl's story, but after a few homegrown joints they called the incident the "Ohio Getaway'.

A true miracle of the Drug Wars.

REEFER MADNESS was a 1936 film financed by a church group intent on informing American youth about the reputed dangers of marijuana. A ten-minute Google search failed to reveal the name of the church group, however the film's focus was hijacked by the addition of salacious scenes by an exploitation producer, Dwain Esper, supposedly a horrible director.

NORML, a pro-marijuana group rediscovered REEFER MADNESS in 1972 and bought the rights from the Library of Congress for $272 to distribute the movie across the USA. It was an instant hit and its popularity has spawned books and a Broadway show, for the only dangers of marijuana are the criminalization of grass, getting beat by a dealer, and eating the contents of your refrigerator.

It does not cause madness or death.

LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH USA IN 2015 WERE AS FOLLOWS

http://drugwarfacts.org

Tobacco 435,000
Poor Diet and Physical Inactivity 365,000
Alcohol 85,000
Microbial Agents 75,000
Toxic Agents 55,000
Motor Vehicle Crashes 26,347
Adverse Reactions to Prescription Drugs 32,000
Suicide 30,622
Incidents Involving Firearms 29,000
Homicide 20,308
Sexual Behaviors 20,000
All Illicit Drug Use, Direct and Indirect 17,000
Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Such As Aspirin 7,600
Marijuana 0

Zero.

Free the weed.

A Reprobate's Parental Guidance

In 1969 I smoked reefer for the first time in my VW Bug coming from Nantasket Beach. Tommie Jordan and John Gilmore were my passengers. The weed belonged to Tommie, a hockey player from North Quincy. His hair was long, at least for a hockey player, but then so was that of Derek Sanderson and he got big money for playing with the Boston Bruins.

Tommie's weed was mild, yet strong enough to strike my sense of hilarity like cobra venom.

We sat at a traffic light for three changes of red to green, laughing hysterically about nothing and very little is funnier than nothing.

Marijuana was illegal in the 60s.

It is now legal in some states, but the DEA continues to oppress smokers'

The greatest segment of the US prison population are convicted pot smoker. Teenagers are constantly lectured on the dangers of smoke.

At the end of last summer I was out in Montauk . The surfing beach town at the eastern tip of Long Island is a relaxed community. I watched the moonrise on Saturday night with my friends. It had been bigger on Friday evening, but size wasn't important this far from Manhattan or Easthampton. We retreated back to a beach shack in Ditch Plains for a BBQ filled with reminiscences of friends long gone. One woman and I vowed to save a 80s beauty trapped in Detroit. We could have reached Wendy in 9 hours, except none of us were driving after a few glasses of wine. Wendy would have to wait for another posse.

I was surprised that our host's son was in the house. This was Labor Weekend, the last days of freedom before school for a 17 year-old boy.

"Why's your son in the house?"

"I caught Todd with weed."

While my host had been straight for a decade, she wasn't a hypocrite. She had started smoking at 14. "What could I say?"

"Not much."

I turned to the teenager. Todd looked like a good kid.

"What were you smoking? Weed or sinse?"

"Hydro." Too didn't roll his eyes, which was a sign of maturity beyond his age.

"Hydro's not really weed."

I had been at Agent Rockford's underground weed plantation this Spring. Every plant had been a twin to the other like a successful cloning experiment. Rockford had handed me a mask.

"7% THC gets in the air. Too much exposure and you're high."

"Is that a bad thing?"

Rockford's reluctance to answer said a lot and I have steered clear of sinse and hydro ever since. I could have given a sermon to the grounded teenager in Montauk. Instead I asked, "How kids in your school smoke pot?"

"90%."

"That many?" I didn't doubt his number. He attended a Manhattan private school.

"The other 10% are Jesus freaks praying for our salvation."

"I only pray for our victory," I explained about Mexico's liberal drug policy. "Anything under 4 joints is legal."

"Even big fatboys?"

>"Maybe only two of those." Rasta joints burned a pile of weed. "Victory is in sight."

The teenager high-fived me.

Later in the evening my host took me to aside and said, "Thanks for the free-pot speech. Maybe you should be doing a tour. Smoke a marijuana."

"That used to be a David Peel song." No one in this generation or even the last two had ever heard about the East Village hippie dedicated to the freedom of the weed. It was too long a story to tell without going to youtubes, so I poured myself another glass of wine and watched the stars drift toward the full moon. It was a good night for it.

ps

David Peel was a good man.

The Dangers of Marijuana

REEFER MADNESS was a 1936 film financed by a church group intent on informing American youth about the reputed dangers of marijuana. A ten-minute Google search failed to reveal the name of the church group, however the film's focus was hijacked by the addition of salacious scenes by an exploitation producer, Dwain Esper, supposedly a horrible director.

NORML, a pro-marijuana group rediscovered REEFER MADNESS in 1972 and bought the rights from the Library of Congress for $272 to distribute the movie across the USA. It was an instant hit and its popularity has spawned books and a Broadway show, for the only dangers of marijuana are the criminalization of grass, getting beat by a dealer, and eating the contents of your refrigerator.

It does not cause madness or death.

LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH USA

http://drugwarfacts.org

Tobacco 435,000
Poor Diet and Physical Inactivity 365,000
Alcohol 85,000
Microbial Agents 75,000
Toxic Agents 55,000
Motor Vehicle Crashes 26,347
Adverse Reactions to Prescription Drugs 32,000
Suicide 30,622
Incidents Involving Firearms 29,000
Homicide 20,308
Sexual Behaviors 20,000
All Illicit Drug Use, Direct and Indirect 17,000
Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Such As Aspirin 7,600
Marijuana 0

Zero.

Free the weed.

EASY PEASY

Those pundits weren't too embarrassed by their calls for a close race. To see Jon Stewart's take on their wisdom and the elation of marijuana legalization in two states, please go to the following URL http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/08/jon-stewart-mocks-fox-news-marijuana-legalization-video_n_2099896.html

Reefer IQ

While searching for US arrests for marijuana I discovered this test from FRONTLINE. I got all the answers right. My IQ for weed is very most excellent. 1. Under which president have more people been arrested for marijuana crimes? a) Ronald Reagan b) George Bush c) Bill Clinton 2) What's the breakdown for marijuana arrests -- for dealing or for possessing pot? a. 90% for dealing, 10% for possession b. 60% for dealing, 40% for possession c. 30% for dealing, 70% for possession d. 15% for dealing, 85% for possession 3) How much money was spent battling drugs in 1997? a. $800 million b. $8 billion c. $60 billion d. $15 billion 4) What percentage of people in federal prisons are serving time for cannabis crimes? a. 70% b. 45% c. 25% d. 10% 5) What percent of federal marijuana crimes involved a weapon? a. 92% b. 50% c. 23% d. 8% 6) Growing 101 marijuana janga plants will get you a longer sentence than which other Federal crimes? a. manslaughter b. assault c. kidnapping 7. How many states have a life sentence for marijuana crimes? a. none b. two c. thirteen d. forty-one 8) How many people smoke pot every day in America? a. roughly three million b. approximately eleven million c. about one million 9) Marijuana is growing stronger as agricultural science advances. How many joints would you have had to smoke in 1974 to equal one joint today? a. 1 b. 2 c. 3 d. 4 e. 5 10. How much does an average pound of marijuana cost? a. $100 b. $350 c. $800 d. $8000 There are the answers mostly from 1996, which means thing are more fucked up than ever. 1. c. Bill Clinton. Nearly 642,000 people were arrested for marijuana related crimes in 1996 (This represents an 80% increase since 1990.) 2) d. 85% were arrested in 1996 for possession; 15% were arrested for selling. 3) d. It's estimated that some $15.1 billion was spent in 1997 on the drug war (out of a total federal budget in '97 of $1.6 trillion.) 4) c. Between Oct 1995 and Oct 1996, marijuana offenses represented nearly 25% of all federal sentences. 5) d. 8% of federal marijuana cases involved a weapon (statistics are from Oct 1995-Oct 1996). 6) b. 101 plants will can get you a 5-year mandatory federal sentence. No parole. You would be in prison longer than if you were convicted of assault. crime sentence in months murder 296 months kidnapping 180 months marijuana (10 year min)* 120 months sexual abuse 67 months marijuana (5 year min)** 60 months avg: marijuana sentence 42 months assault 34 months manslaughter 27 months fraud 13 months *10 year mandatory minimum for marijuana (growing more than 1000 plants = 120 months ** 5 year mandatory minimum for marijuana (growing more than 100 plants = 60 months) 7. c. In at least thirteen states you can get a life sentence for marijuana. 8) a. A 1992 study by the National Institute for Drug Abuse found that roughly 3 million Americans smoked pot everyday; another 2 million smoked once a month; and some 12 million smoked pot once a year. 9) d. According to a 1997 U.S. Dept. of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration report, you have to smoke four joints to equal just one grown today. 10. c. The average price of a pound of marijuana was $800, in 1996. Depending on quality, however, a pound could range from $350 for homegrown to $8,000 for high grade sensimilia. Free the Weed To view BUSTED on Frontline please go to this URL

MIstaken Identity

Mexico's war on drugs has claimed over 55,000 lives in the past six years of President Calderon's rule. The police and army have been corrupted by traffickers shipping cocaine and marijuana to the USA. Last week officials claimed to have arrested the son of a notorious drug lord. The DEA were quick to congratulate the successful capture and the news media crowed about yet another turning point in the war on drugs only to later discover that the arrestee was a car salesman with no connection to the Sinoloa drug cartel. Thankfully he doesn't seem to have been beaten into admitting that he was who the drug officials wanted him to me, but someone may have already been paid $5 million for the information leading to this fake arrest. Opps. President Obama remains firmly committed to battling the drug lords of America down to the last joint sold in a medical marijuana store, but Uruguay has decided to sell marijuana from state stores to curtail the rise in murders between drug gangs. The government seeks to register all reefer smokers, but if marijuana is legal, then it should be legal to grow it for self-use. Costa Rica and Guatemala are also considered the decriminalization of drugs. Police are in favor of the legislation. The Church is worried about the souls of pot smokers. The Senate will have to decide on the controversial measure in the months to come. Hopefully they will come out for full legalization. The War of Drugs has been lost. It's time for someone to admit 'mission unaccomplished'.

Safer Than Peanuts

The top 15 causes of death in the USA are the following according to worldlifeexpectancy.com ( I have added the major causes of these top causes of death based on my hunches and not scientific fact); 1. Heart Disease (obesity and tobacco) 2. Cancer (tobacco, pollution, stress, and fast foods) 3. Stroke (obesity, fast foods, and stress) 4. Chronic Lung Disease (tobacco and pollution) 5. Accidents (stupidity and lack of luck) 6. Alzheimer's (aluminum and over-saturation of visual stimuli ie TV) 7. Diabetes (fast food and obesity) 8. Influenza and Pneumonia (lack of rest and sleep) 9. Nephritis/Kidney Disease (alcohol and fast food) 10. Blood Poisoning (processed foods) 11. Suicide (too much stress) 12. Liver Disease (alcohol) 13. Hypertension/Renal (too much stress) 14. Parkinson's Disease (pollution) 15. Homicide (heart failure) The same site lists the top 50 causes of the death in the USA at this URL http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/usa-cause-of-death-by-age-and-gender None of them are related to marijuana, but the police aren't kicking down the doors of JR Reynolds, because smoking is a matter of choice, not propaganda. MInd you, I don't really smoke marijuana these days. Too chronic for an old hippie. I do defend the right of heads to get high. It is harmless not matter what the fat boy Governor of New Jersey and CALM (Citizens Against Legalizing Marijuana) feel about legalization to protect the special interests of police unions, private prisons, Big Pharma, Budweiser, and prison guard unions. Safer than peanuts. Hell, someone in Iowa has a better chance of getting killed by a shark than dying of marijuana.